Aliphatic polyamide forming components such as caprolactam, laurinlactam, hexamethylenediamine adipate, etc. are known for use in connection with adhesive compounds if the monomer composition is chosen so that the melting points of the polyamides are between 70.degree. and 150.degree. C. Such compositions are described in DE 12 53 449 DE 22 63 922, DE 23 24 159, DE 23 24 160, DE 32 48 776, U.S. 39 33 762, CH 491 150, CH 482 756, and CH 540 311. The materials set forth in these patents show good resistance to deterioration after washing or dry cleaning.
Copolyamides of caprolactam, laurinlactam and m-xylylene diamine adipate are described in JP 79 023 397. Also, JP 74 019 093 discloses copolyamides comprised of caprolactam and salts of m-xylylene diamine and dodecane dioic acid. Both of these compositions are taught to have good resistance to dry cleaning and washing. Other patents describe copolyamides derived from xylylene diamine and dimeric fatty acids as being useful in adhesive compounds (see NL 174 563, NL 7 508 420, JP 81 029 687, and CA 887 138).
Such copolyamides are highly resistant to the solvents used in dry cleaning and also to water normally used in washing. Moreover, in addition to their adhesive strength, they have very high temperature resistance, especially when compared to other materials such as the ethylene/vinyl acetate or styrene/butadiene copolymers. These are recognized in the field as "high performance hot melt adhesives" (see F. Eichhorn and Th. Reiner, Electro-Anzeiger 34/7, 33, 1981).
However, the foregoing adhesives possess an important disadvantage. In order to process or set them, it is necessary to elevate the temperature to the softening or distortion point. Axiomatically, this means that the shape of the applied adhesive cannot be easily maintained. Moreover, since the temperature resistance of the bond corresponds to the softening temperature of the material, it is necessarily below the temperature which must be used in order to process the adhesive.
On the other hand, it is known to produce polymers which have low processing or setting temperatures. These must contain additives which produce soft or sticky properties (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,792,002; 3,449,273; and 3,787,342). However, in spite of the presence of the aforementioned additives, the temperature resistance of such polymers is lower than those of the polyamide adhesives which have no such additives. Furthermore, the adhesive properties of these polymers are inferior to those of the copolyamide adhesives.